Book review 2-4

I read “Tales from the Arabian Nights”. I have heard the title when I was a high school student, but I did not know the story. Therefore I decided to read it.

This story starts from a king, Sultan. He hates women after his first divorce and he decides to marry a new woman and kill her when the first night ends. People are very afraid of him, and then a woman, Sheherezade, tries to stop his bad behavior to talk him thousands of stories. These stories are called “Tales from the Arabian Nights”. There are sad stories, funny stories, strange stories, exciting stories, and so on.

My favorite story is ‘Behind the door’. The main character is Salem. His father was very rich. When he died, he left his money and houses to him, but Salem lost the money quickly and he ended up selling his houses. He got poor, but an old man spoke to him, ‘Be my servant, and you will live in a better place.’ So he followed him and became his servant. He watched many old people living in his house. They looked unhappy, but he did not understand the reason. The men were dead one after another, and the old man also died. When he was dying, he told Salem not to open behind the door. However, he could not beat his curiosity, and after all he opened the door. Inside the door was dark and he went downstairs, and there he was caught by a big bird and he was taken away at a wonderful place. He met a beautiful woman there, got married to her and spent a wonderful time, but she said the same thing that the old men said to him. He opened the door again and went downstairs. Amazingly, he returned to the house which had stayed with old men. He tried to discover the way to return the wonderful world, but he failed.

I have heard a story which is the similar to this. It was “Tono story” which was written by Kunio Yanagida who was a great academian of folklore in Japan. The main character lost his way in a forest and he found a lodge. Inside of the lodge was very clean and there were many kinds of things, so he spent his time there. He could go out of the forest safely, but he wanted to go the lodge again. He tried to find again and again, however, he could not find it.

These stories are very similar. Therefore I could have a sense of closeness. I would like to read ‘Tono story’ someday.